A Request

"So, Li Tai... my master really just left like that?" Xu Xian asked.

Li Taibai is even more of a piece of work than I am, Xu Xian added in his mind.

Tu Sisi asked in return, "What else could he have done?"

"He didn't leave you a promise or anything?"

Tu Sisi said matter-of-factly, "He already said he wasn't coming back. What use would a promise be? In this world, sword cultivators are like their swords—upright and incapable of lying."

Xu Xian nodded in agreement. "True."

After all, he was a sword cultivator himself.

Tu Sisi looked at Xu Xian strangely. "With one exception."

"Who?" Xu Xian asked instinctively.

"Xu Xian," Tu Sisi blurted out.

Screw you, Xu Xian cursed inwardly, his smile instantly freezing.

He quickly changed the subject. "So... Kongkong is my master's child." Just after saying it, he denied it himself. "Wait, that's not right. You said it's been ten thousand years since you parted. You couldn't have been pregnant for ten thousand years. That doesn't make sense. Is there someone else? Did you move on and fall for another man?"

Xu Xian speculated, his eyes filled with a curious glint.

Tu Sisi said slowly, "Why couldn't it be?"

"Ten thousand years of pregnancy for real?"

Xu Xian still found it a bit absurd, even if this was a world of cultivation.

Tu Sisi shook her head and spoke ambiguously, "Yes and no..."

No wonder the Demon-Slaying Sword was so easy to talk to when Tu Kongkong crossed the bridge. It turned out she was the little mistress.

For a while, Xu Xian had even thought the sword had succumbed to his own intimidation.

"...Back then, when I gave birth to Kongkong, he told me that Fanzhou would face a great catastrophe in the near future. Currently, there is no way to break the deadlock. When the catastrophe strikes, the entire world will be devastated and turned into ruins. He said he didn't want his daughter to live in such a world, so he used a secret technique to seal the newborn Kongkong within a barrier, halting her growth. He planned for her to be unsealed only when the time was right and a sliver of opportunity appeared. Otherwise, he would have let her stay like that... perhaps then she could be preserved and escape the disaster," Tu Sisi explained.

Xu Xian remained silent. A catastrophe. Another catastrophe. It seemed his suspicions were correct.

"Which means that sliver of opportunity has already appeared..."

Tu Sisi looked at the young man and replied, "Yes. You are that sliver of opportunity to break the deadlock."

"Me?" Xu Xian was a bit confused. "Ten thousand years ago, he calculated that I would appear?"

Tu Sisi said, "No. It was the sword stele."

Xu Xian understood.

"I see."

He couldn't have predicted a specific Xu Xian, but the opportunity was the inheritance of the sword stele. Senior Brother Yun Zheng had said the same thing.

The way to break the deadlock lay within the Sword Tower.

And he just happened to inherit the sword stele and obtain the Sword Tower.

He had entered the sect at twelve and was now nearly thirty. Tu Kongkong was thirteen this year, and she was nearly eleven when she joined the sect. Calculating it carefully, Xu Xian had woken up from his four-year epiphany after breaking the sword stele right when Tu Kongkong's seal was released.

It was a perfect match.

Tu Sisi continued her story. "That year, you broke the endgame and entered an epiphany. When I heard about it in the North Sea, I traveled tens of thousands of miles. Still worried, I waited until you woke up. Only then was I certain that you were the Sword Bearer he had been waiting for."

"Sword Bearer?" Xu Xian whispered to himself.

Tu Sisi continued, "Later, I returned to Tushan and released Kongkong's seal. Five years later, I had her set off alone for the Northern Borders to join the Wendao Sword Sect. This was the agreement between him and me, and also the agreement between the entire North Sea demon race and him. When Kongkong enters the Wendao Sword Sect and reaches the great ascension stage, the Ten Thousand Demon Banner will be returned to its rightful owner."

Xu Xian nodded instinctively.

"No wonder."

He had wondered why one of the beast veins was missing. How could a descendant of the Tushan demon immortal be a talentless waste among the demon race?

And everything Tu Kongkong had told him...

How she was disliked in Tushan and suffered cold shoulders...

With the bloodline of a demon immortal, who would dare bully her? People would be tripping over themselves to flatter her.

Thinking about it now,

Where was the story of leaving home and fleeing the North Sea?

Where was the story of being looked down upon and criticized?

All of it was likely a deliberate arrangement by the woman in front of him.

Everything was just a pretext created by the powerhouses of the North Sea to let the junior, Tu Kongkong, go out into the world for experience and cultivation...

And incidentally, to retrieve the Ten Thousand Demon Banner, a Great Dao Divine Weapon of Fanzhou.

Xu Xian shook his head and laughed. The world really was one giant stage.

Humans and demons alike were all acting. He put away his wine, drank some tea to refresh himself, and asked:

"So, it was also my master who told you that I would be able to see him?"

Tu Sisi had no reason to tell him such a story for nothing. Since she had spoken, she must have a purpose. She was giving him a heads-up to prepare him mentally so that when he took the helm of the Wendao Sword Sect in the future, he would return the Ten Thousand Demon Banner to Kongkong.

And to answer his previous question.

How she knew he could see Li Taibai.

"No," Tu Sisi denied.

Xu Xian nodded thoughtfully. "Then it must have been Senior Brother Yun Zheng."

Tu Sisi admitted frankly, "Yes. Before he died, he came to the shores of the North Sea to have a short talk with me."

"Oh?" Xu Xian was a bit surprised. If that were the case, his senior brother had known about the secret between his master and this demon immortal. Curiously, he asked, "What did Senior Brother say to you?"

Tu Sisi's brow furrowed slightly, her gaze turning inward as she instinctively recalled the scene from that day.

That night.

Yun Zheng had come uninvited, requesting a meeting with her on the shores of the North Sea. She had accepted, and the two of them spoke across the boundary line.

The young man said he calculated that he did not have long to live. He hoped that after his fall, Tu Sisi could look after the Wendao Sword Sect to some extent.

If the entire world came to attack, he didn't ask Tu Sisi to defy heaven and change fate; he only asked that she step in to protect his junior brothers and sisters.

Tu Sisi didn't ask for the reason then; she only asked how long.

The young man's answer: until his little junior brother reached the eighth stage.

She then asked him: on what grounds?

In exchange, Yun Zheng told her that when Xu Xian reached the eighth stage, he would be able to see Li Taibai. He would also be the only living being in Fanzhou capable of seeing Li Taibai.

Tu Sisi had agreed.

She couldn't find a reason to refuse, nor did she want to.

However, she hadn't expected that Yun Zheng would fall in the East Desolation that same autumn.

What a fine young man he was.

And now,

Xu Xian was in the eighth stage, so she had come.

She did not answer Xu Xian's question. The man was dead; what use was there in talking about it?

Having said what needed to be said and explained what needed to be explained, she took a letter from her sleeve. The letter bore the unique aura and seal of a demon immortal.

"My story is finished. In exchange, it is now your turn to do something for me."

Xu Xian did not refuse. He accepted it readily and smiled. "I am happy to be of service to the demon immortal. Or perhaps I should call you 'Master's Wife'?"

Tu Sisi's gaze wavered as she said slowly, "That was in the past. It might have been true then, but it is not now."

Xu Xian didn't quite understand. What did she mean? Did she really move on?

He asked, "You... don't love him anymore?"

"Love?" Tu Sisi gave a self-mocking laugh. "Heh..."

She looked up at the sky, her eyes filled with sorrow. She said with emotion, "If you clearly knew that you could not wait for someone, yet you still tried to wait for ten thousand years... perhaps then you would understand."

Xu Xian said solemnly, "I understand."

The demon immortal said with certainty, "No, you don't!"

Xu Xian swallowed hard. He held up the envelope and teased, "Can I read it?"

The demon immortal's gaze darkened. "No."

Xu Xian chuckled sheepishly. "Just kidding."

The demon immortal's expression remained unchanged. "It wasn't funny at all."